September 11, 2016:
Qatar has ordered eight Mark V SOC (Special Operations Craft) from the United States for $124 million. This includes spare parts and training. The Mark Vs are 57 ton, 25 meter (82 feet) boats with a top speed of over 110 kilometers an hour and operational range of nearly a thousand kilometers. The crew of twelve operates an autocannon (20mm or larger) and a 12.7mm machine-gun. There is room to carry up to 16 passengers (like SEALs) plus four inflatable landing boats each with a payload of 1.2 tons and powered by an outboard engine. Other types of small landing craft can be carried instead. The Mark V SOC was developed for U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and entered service in the late 1990s. Saudi Arabia also bought 30 of them for coastal patrol.